Killing Clippy

The rasping voice of Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was the perfect choice for Clippy, the animated office paperclip that has agitated Microsoft Office users since 1997. (Gottfried is also behind the equally annoying Aflac duck.) Signing the celebrity was part of Microsoft’s $30 million campaign to promote its Office XP software. Less than $150,000 of that went to pay for an interactive game called X-tract Clippy, in which players could use office supplies like rubber bands and staplers as weapons to silence this menace to productivity once and for all.

The integrated marketing campaign, which included a massive PR push and e-mail barrage directing people to the website, generated 22 million hits on www.officeclippy.com within the first month (April 2001). According to Microsoft, the number of product information requests on Office XP was 60 times that of other campaigns added. Matthew Ringel, vice president of strategy and digital solutions for KPE, a New York City-based marketing communications agency that helped develop the Clippy game, says the game was the key to the whole campaign.

Alex St. John, CEO and cofounder of Redmond, Wash.-based WildTangent, a 3-year-old interactive media company, believes that games will become even more effective marketing tools as the Web and new technologies bring richer game experiences to users. One of WildTangent’s more successful campaigns was an online game for the film Jurassic Park III. In July, the joint venture of DNA Studios, Universal Pictures and WildTangent generated 284,000 plays (more than 20,000 per day) for an average of 19 minutes per game. Not a bad return when one considers that banner and pop-up ads get a few seconds’ notice at most, and that click-through rates (CTRs) have sagged to 0.1 percent on average.

"Games are a media type," says St. John. "In fact, they are more effective at marketing than any other media type that has existed before."

The House Wins

Online gambling is illegal in the United States, but that hasn’t stopped Las Vegas-based Harrah’s Entertainment, another Web Business 50 winner, from offering a virtual casino as part of its Total Rewards loyalty program. The Play for Fun gaming page, which was launched in September 2000, allows members to sharpen their skills at blackjack or learn to play other casino favorites such as roulette. According to Harrah’s, more than 30,000 users visited the virtual casino in July, spending an average of more than 23 minutes per visit.

David Norton, vice president of loyalty marketing, says that although other virtual gaming sites are popping up all over the Web, he believes that Harrah’s will thrive. More important, the site will help cement the users’ relationship with the resort, Norton says. "The games introduce them to other things. Things like promotions and hot deals, and it gives them an incentive to come to one of our properties."